Anyway you live and learn, and some of these caused me to learn pretty quickly.
My first ever item I bought. On the wifes suggestion (I could therefore say the obsession I have now is down to her but I like my knackers where they are and not in a jar by her bedside). Bought from an Antique dealer. Set comprised tunic with all the medals and insignia, a pair of original riding breeches, dagger was added later. Bought for £60.00. Can you believe I actually sold this on Ebay and wasn't banned for life.
The next lot I was over the moon with at the time. All bought in the US when the dollar was pretty weak against the pound. Compared to what was selling on UK Ebay I though I had it made. Insignia was superb as were the medals. I soon learnt however that all the tunics were post war NVA (I remember someone on Ebay asking if these were NVA and thinking..."Bloody fool, they were from a conflict 20 years after this one
) items which you could get for next to nothing. Still at the time they all sold for good money. You can see from some of the pics the guy was heavily into insignia, even on camo items.
These next ones were all classics. Pictured on the suppliers web site as some of the nicest looking peaked caps I'd seen. Turned out to be a leason in 'don't believe all that you see' but one that I didn't learn from for a couple more f**k ups. The pictures speak for the quailty. You wouldn't see Tom Cruise in Valkerie bimbling about in one of these.
Hitlers tailor let him down badly with this effort
Particularly like the quailty of the Luftwaffe blue on this one
You can't beat a nice hairy cap
You might have thought after the caps I would have taken heed with my next endeavour however this next one I got very excited about. At the time SOF were selling Officer tunics for £185.00 without insignia. When I found this on a suppliers web site I remember saying to the wife..."we've got it now" The picture below is from thier web site, a very nice tunic made from Gabardine, nice Frence cuffs, correct collar. Gorgeous. The one below that is what I recieved in the post.
You will see straight away the quailty of material is not quite the same. Cuffs differ in appearence, collar doesn't even fasten and it fit like a sack. This picture doesn't do this item justice...it was actually worse.
This one while being the easiest sale I ever made I wish I'd now hung on to it. It was listed on UK Ebay twice without selling. The sellers pictures were realy bad and didn't do the items justice. I knew even bad Dot pattern at the time fetched pretty good money so after it failed to sell the second time I E-mailed the seller and made him an offer. As soon as I recieved the item I took some better pics and stuck it straight back on Ebay. Sold within days. Looking at the pics I've got the Dot pattern is really nice and the helmet must have been an original M42 shell. Original gas mask cannister with gas mask, canteen(replaced the cover as it was damaged) nice ankle boots. Very nice set. Who knows someone on here might have bought it.
The most recent was a Dot pattern panzer wrap I bought from an auction down South along with another one. Got them both for a good price and managed to double my money selling them on USA Ebay. However it now looks like one of them was a very early and now very rare Janke tunic. BUGGER.
Been others like the belt and buckle I thought were crap as it didn't look like the one in SOF. Buckle had some sort of strange leather tab attached so stuck it on Ebay with a low 'Buy it Now' just to get shot. Or the kindly gentleman who e-mailed me afer I'd won a job lot to ask if i would sell him the small black plastic cup that was included. Sold it to him for £5.00. Turned out to be an original bakerlite cup for a canteen.
Where does all this crap end up. Either in the loft or sold at car boot fairs. If however one of you lucky people would like a very early HK Kieth Officers tunic made of HBT with black collar, the outline of a chest eagle stiched in so you know where to put yours then feel free to send me a PM. Might even be able to throw in the superb Hitler Cap if I can find it
